NBA Season 2012-2013

Justin, I'm jumping for joy that the Lakers hired a coach that has little to no chance of ever winning a title. Phil's agent wasn't even in town yet to negotiate a deal, but has already come out and said his client would not asked for any road games off and already knew his salary would have been substantially less. This came down to a power play by the petulant Jim Buss not wanting PJ to get all the credit. He's an idiot, and all Laker Haters are happy to know Dr. Buss is slowly but surely phasing himself out, and little Jimmy is taking over :lol: The Lakers will play better than they have, but there won't parade any time w/D'Antoni is in charge (ironic that his last name starts w/D since his teams can't guard a mailbox)

 

I disagree. I love the move because it thinks about the long term as well as the short term. And there's some huge differences between this team and Phoenix, won't touch the cesspool of NY as nobody can win there. For one, Dwight is a far better defender than Amare. That alone improves his defense. And Kobe and Metta are all NBA defenders. Mike never had that. So the pieces that are in place should improve his defense considerably as long as he brings in a defensive coordinator type. All you need with his offense is to be able to somewhat slow down the other team. We can do that.

Again, Jackson completely failed in the last season he coached. We got smacked by Dallas and he was outcoached by Carlisle. We also had a tough time with the Hornets and Monty gave him a run for his money on the sidelines. Given that and the fact that we need to think beyond next year, this was the right move.

As far as Jim goes, he did realize his mistake in hiring Brown and fired him and his reign has led to the signings of Howard and Nash. Obviously Mitch is the bigger part in this, but he has done fine in the last few months. I'm not convinced yet, but I'm slowly starting to be more comfortable with him as the owner. As long as we have Mitch Kupchak as GM, I don't think we'll have any problems.


Apparently he wants Nate McMillan as his defensive assitant. Thoughts? Didn't watch Portland because of them running a slow offense.

 

Not hiring Phil, FOR THIS SEASON ONLY, is an idiotic, selfish, ass-backward, cretin move. I hate little Jimmy.

 

Do you want to not have a coach as Dwight hits free agency? That would be a huge risk to take, especially when guys like D'Antoni and McMillan could be gone by then.

There is a Woj article on yahoo, can't link, that says that Phil did ask for everything. So Jimmy and Mitch said no. Fine move by me.

 

They shot themselves in the foot by firing Brown 5 games in, and Howard's free agency? That doesn't bother me b/c they will resign him. It bothers me that a known factor - despite his last couple of years - that is one of the best coaches of all time and wants the job, is turned down. I'd venture the ownership percentage or not traveling points that are being bandied about could've been worked out. D'Antoni doesn't excite me and I hope I'm wrong - he doesn't have a 32 yr old Nash anymore, or anybody similar to run his offense. I question this decision making but, I'm just a supporter.

 

It sounds like Jackson really wanted to rub it in and ask for the moon. Him and Jimmy have issues so I'm not sure it could have been worked out. The Woj piece really hints that this was more of a personal deal against Jimmy than asking for legitmate things. If I was Jimmy, I would have went the other way too.

I trust Mitch. He will get us the pieces necessary to compete. He has pulled far bigger rabbits out of a hat, I'm sure he can find us some shooters to compliment the offense.

 

This is reasonable, but I hope you're right. Auditions begin now for shooters, big market, sunny weather, all resumes accepted...

 

Since Brown has left, the team is 4-1 under Bickerstaff. The best part is that they're scoring. We aren't playing the same kind of defense, but we're doing enough to win. I hope that side of the ball improves though as it would make our offense easier with even more fast breaks.

The Knicks are rolling with a 7-1 record. If their GM was smart, he would trade Stoudemire away as they seem to play better without him. Carmelo shines as the number one scorer. Bring in somebody to complient him without needing to take away his looks at the ball.

The Celtics are kind of everywhere. They're pretty old so I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't the year they started to go downhill. They lost by 20 to a 1-8 Pistons team. They aren't that bad, but I am not sure if they're a contender anymore. The Knicks might have taken over that division. The Nets could too as they're looking good.

 

I had the pleasure of watching the Sacramento Kings smush the Lakers tonight (I have a piece of a season ticket). The Lakers were a one-man team tonight, and they won't go far in the playoffs as a one-man team. Kobe was amazing and the rest were mediocre. Howard and Gasol are, by reputation, better than the Kings' bigs, but the Kings bigs outplayed them. Howard can dunk, but that's it for his offense -- he had 2 putback dunks and 3 free throws for 7 points. I'll give him some credit for holding down Demarcus Cousins. I'm sure they'll get better when they adjust to D'Antoni and get back Nash and Blake, but they have a long way to go based on what I saw tonight.

 

So I didn't realize how mediocre the Lakers roster really was on 3's until I bought NBA 2K13 last night and went online with it. The only guys who can hit the shot is Meeks and Bryant. In real basketball, Metta and Duhon can hit them sometimes, but they're not going to lead the league anytime soon. And it's impossible to run the break because Pau and Metta aren't exactly the most athletic guys who are going to jump over people. Basically Mitch is hurting my stats online!

Back to reality and Pau was benched in the 4th in the loss to the Grizzlies. Mitch needs to deal him now before his stock falls even further. Him and Dwight don't work and Nash won't fix it. Get Smith from Atlanta or start Hill and bring in an athlete for the 3 spot. Do it soon as we have enough changes as it is and don't need another major change in February as Pau gets traded.

 

The sky is falling out here in LaLa land as the Lakers are a disastrous 9-13. I'm in my car a few hours a day, and the daily Laker doom and gloom has driven me from laughing to not being able to take it and switching it to music. The hack-a-Shaq has now been replaced by Hug-a-Howard and Dwight is shooting at a 46% clip :lol: Even the most die-hard of Laker fans are realizing that the arrival of a 38 year old Steve Nash is not going to be the answer. Jim Buss thinks he knows basketball as much as Mitch Kupchak, and decided that Mike D'Antoni was a better fit than Phil Jackson :laughing-rolling: It will probably take 55 wins in order to get a top 4 seed, which means they'll have to go approx. 46-14 the rest of the way...not happening.

Surprise team of the season is none other than the Golden State Warriors 13-7. Mark Jackson has done a helluva job in getting that team playing it's best hoops since probably the Run TMC days (Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, Chris Mullin). Tovi in Santa Barbara is the only GS fan I know, so hope he feels free to brag, because after all these years, all Warriors fans deserve it.

 

Even Jackson wouldn't do much better with the pieces available. Mitch is going to have to get some shooters and quick players here before we fall too far behind everybody. Defnders is also a priority as our transition defense is terrible. That starts on the offensive end of the floor and we turn over the ball too much.

The sad thing is that Kobe has been playing the best basketball of anybody all year. He does it all for this team. Really have to get Nash back so Kobe can play without the ball more and conserve his energy. I am still confident of winning a title because Mitch won't allow this to keep going on so Kobe needs this energy for the playoffs.

 

Steve Nash comes back and in his first game he plays like, well how Steve Nash always plays, and the Lakers beat upstart Golden State in OT and no Justin post about the inevitability of a Laker title this year?? :whistle:

 

Standings are pretty shocking HD. Clips win their 14th straight yesterday. Everyone out here knows they have the talent to win the West, but just waiting for the "Curse of the Clippers" to strike i.e catastrophic injury.

 

Confident about winning a title. Nash is making everybody better and Kupchak will make the right moves to put us in position to win. I have always took a keep calm approach and we just won 5 straight games and the Denver loss is like an annual thing so it's not a big deal. At this point, make the playoffs and go on from there. When Dwight hits form and Kupchak gets us a stretch 4 or some shooters then we will be ready to roll come playoffs.

The Heat started off like crap and made the finals after they got James and Bosh, the Celtics start off like crap every year and are contenders. This team is more talented then either of those teams so there isn't much point in being concerned about the slow start.

 

The soap opera that is the Lakers just gets better as Nero is warming up his fiddle as the sucker is burning down. 17-25 and as bad a locker room as there is in the league. You don't have like each other, but you better respect and be willing to play with the guy next to you. Example of how bad the chemistry is; Players only meeting followed by D'Antoni coming in a saying he's sick and tired of reading about guys complaining, and what was said gets leaked to the press. What is said in closed door meetings never gets leaked.

• Want to rebuild your team? Start with a point guard. Portland actually has some hope because of the rookie of the year Damian Lillard. Cleveland chose very wisely as Kyrie Irving is a great player. Stephan Curry for the Warriors is a point/shooting guard that might be the most underrated player in the league.

• I get wanting to change your nickname to suit your market (why Utah kept the moniker Jazz, when SLC's idea of jazz is Donnie Osmond with a trumpet is anyone's guess), but New Orleans has decided to switch their name to the...Pelicans :shock: The New Orleans Pelicans???? Really????